East Ayrshire says no thanks to Visitor Levy

East Ayrshire Council will NOT be introducing a Visitor Levy in the near future

East Ayrshire  has a total of 134 businesses offering overnight accommodation. These include hotels, Bed and Breakfasts , Campsites and Licensed Accommodation. This important infrastructure brought in revenue of £9.2m to the local economy in 2024.

Councillors heard the results of engagement and consideration undertaken by the Council’s Economic Growth Team following the introduction of TheVisitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 which makes provision for a local levy to be applied to the sector that could bring in resources specifically to support the local tourism infrastructure.

As a result of the review, they agreed to pause any further work on development of a levy until August 2027 until more evidence  is available about the impact of the scheme in other areas and on the wider visitor economy.

The  East Ayrshire research took the form of desktop investigations, engagement with tourism providers and related businesses via the East Ayrshire Tourism Network, and benchmarking with other authorities. 

It concluded that the relatively small size of the overnight hospitality sector in East Ayrshire coupled with the costs of setting up and administering a scheme would render any move to introduce a local Visitor Levy uneconomic in the current climate.

Councillors agreed to pause any further work on development of a levy until August 2027 until further evidence on the impact of the scheme in other areas and on the wider visitor economy are available.

Explaining the decision, Councillor Ian Linton, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Tourism said:

“Across Scotland we know there are areas where overtourism is a problem, causing overcrowding in tourism “hotspots”  and a strain on resources. The Visitor Levy Act gives local authorities the power to levy the charges to help them cope with the demands on infrastructure which this produces. In some areas rates of between 2% and 7% are being considered.

“At the same time, we had to look at the specific situation in East Ayrshire and as a result of consultations with our partner organisations and the tourism business community we recognised that while we are broadly supportive of the Visitor Levy scheme because of the opportunities it would provide to reinvest in the local tourism economy, our own circumstances mean it is not viable or appropriate to implement it at this time.

“Our research showed that set up costs alone would be no less than £110k  with recurring annual costs of at least £190k based on 2023 prices.  We could not justify finding this from our own budgets which are already hard pressed.

Calculations, supplied by the STEAM tourism economic impact modelling process,  that implementation of a levy at the moment would on a net basis generate little or no funds to support tourism infrastructure.

“At the same time our discussions with local providers showed a largely negative response, on the grounds that with the current high costs of doing business due to rises in the costs of energy, food and raw materials, price inflation, staff wage increases and employer’s national insurance payments - an additional charge would simply create even more strain.

“Looking at other local authorities we know we are not alone in coming to this conclusion, in many other areas a local scheme has been rejected for the moment. However we are still in discussions with our neighbouring authorities in the Regional Economic Partnership to  review the options and associated costs around a regional scheme to overcome some of the financial and logistical challenges. This is why we’ve agreed to halt development for now and revisit it in 2027.”

In the meantime, East Ayrshire Council’s Economic Growth team will continue discussions with other authorities and Visit Scotland to continue monitoring, assessing and learning lessons from experiences in other areas.